Australia end 20-yr drought, lift team event gold in kayak

Australia edged out two-time former champions Hungary to claim the Olympic Games four-man kayak gold medal on Thursday in their first ever team title in the sport. Tate Smith, Dave Smith, Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear, who all work as beach lifeguards, steered their country to gold at the Eton Dorney course to the west of London. “Australia’s first gold in a team boat — that’s massive, but I’ll look at that history later,” said Tate Smith. “We’ve struggled a little this Olympics — we’ve been close but it’s the Olympic Games and it’s so hard to win a medal, so to get this gold medal means everything to us.” Australia’s only other medal in the event was a bronze at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Hungary, for whom Zoltan Kammerer became the fourth man to triple-medal in the discipline, were the 2000 and 2004 champions. Defending champions Belarus failed to make the final, where Australia were the only non-European team. Germany took two golds on Thursday through Peter Kretschmer and Kurt Kuschela in the canoe two-man sprint while Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze paddled to victory in the women’s double kayak sprint. From:Gulftoday